It is undoubtedly the case, as this report highlights, that the political nature of our organisation inevitably leads to a heightened power imbalance, and it is all the more important, therefore, that we get this right, creating a culture here in which harassment of any kind is not tolerated, where bystanders routinely call out unacceptable behaviour, and where survivors are empowered to report and are believed. Thereby, we can contribute to wider cultural change. 

I warmly welcome this report and the Commission's prompt and positive response to the recommendations. 

Now, the Chair and Paul Davies have already referred to the Government's response to recommendation 12, and I feel that I have to address the bulk of my remarks to this. I can't express how disappointed I am by the First Minister's response. I would have expected unanimity across this Chamber that not only must the highest standards of conduct in public life be expected of all of us as Assembly Members, but that those standards must also apply to all Ministers, and not only must those standards apply and be enforced, but they must be seen by the public to be upheld and be enforced. 

I am really surprised that the First Minister says in paragraph 5 of his response to recommendation 12, and I quote,

'the Committee’s view that public confidence would be improved if the Standards Commissioner undertook that role'

—the role of investigating complaints under the ministerial code—

'is not one that is shared by the First Minister.'

Now I can, up to a point, accept what the First Minister says about potentially needing to make a difference between the role of an Assembly Member and when a person is acting as a Minister, but I would concur with what Paul Davies says: we may make those differences here in this Chamber and we may understand them, but to the public, I simply cannot understand how they should be expected to perceive the difference. And I find it more difficult to accept and understand the First Minister's view that it would somehow be confusing for the standards commissioner to investigate alleged breaches of the ministerial code. Surely the person we've appointed to this important role must be able to undertake investigations under two different sets of expectations. I can't see why using the standards commissioner as the investigator would in any way muddy the waters with regard to the separation of powers between the Executive and the Assembly, and at any rate, as Paul Davies has said, that is for the public a moot point. The standards of behaviour are the standards of behaviour. 

Now, if it were true that there was some muddying of powers between the Executive and Parliament in the suggestion the committee has made, the First Minister must, at the very least, establish a separate, permanent and independent investigative system to which all complaints of possible breaches of the ministerial code should be referred. It cannot be in the interests of transparency or conducive to public confidence for any First Minister to have discretion to determine whether or not a complaint or concern actually constitutes a possible breach of the code and needs investigating. And I would concur with what Paul Davies has said. I am not suggesting that these decisions are in any way grubby or made behind closed doors, but the risk is that that is how people will perceive them. At any rate, it is not right for the First Minister to have the right to decide whether this constitutes a possible breach or not, and referrals to an independent process at the very least ought to be automatic. And I concur with what the Chair has said, I hope that that will be offered to us in the statement that we are to receive automatically. 

And I would also say that what other Parliaments do is not relevant here. We have consistently decided in this Assembly to be better than other Parliaments, whether it's establishing the children's commissioner, for example, long before other parliaments in the UK got their act together to do the same. I believe, as Paul Davies has said, that we should be setting higher standards for ourselves, and those should be higher standards with regard to transparency. 

When it comes to the oversight of the ministerial code, I still believe that the committee's original recommendation is a practical and sensible solution. And we will, of course, one way or another, have a new First Minister soon, and I'd like to ask the committee Chair whether she believes it would be appropriate for us as a committee to approach the new First Minister, whoever she or he may be, and ask them to reconsider this response.

To close, Llywydd, the public have a right to expect that we, in this place, set the tone for the whole of public life in Wales. If we are to do so, we must be as sure as we can possibly be that everyone who works here or who visits here, or who co-operates with us, feels respected and is treated with dignity. This report and the Commission's actions and positive response to this report, are a huge step in that right direction, and I commend this report to the Chamber.